Tale of the YAKU: Part 3
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
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In English, “tail of the yak” and “tale of the yak” both make sense but mean very different things. This is nothing compared with the profusion of Japanese homonyms. When you type YAKU in hiragana and convert it to kanji, any of the following characters could pop up, as all have the on-yomi of YAKU:
約 (to promise, shrink, about)
訳 (to translate)
薬 (medicine)
役 (service, serviceability)
厄 (misfortune)
躍 (to leap)
疫 (epidemic)
益 (benefit, profit)
This leads to a plethora of homophonous YAKU compounds.
There are three more types of yaku:
焼く (to burn, roast, grill, bake)
In this case, ya(ku) is the kun-yomi. Some compounds include the kun-yomi of this kanji, but the form is always yaki or yake. This kanji therefore doesn’t factor into the YAKU homonym confusion.
妬く (to become jealous)
This kun-yomi is uncommon and seems to play no part in any homonym problem.
ヤク (yak)
I believe this word also causes no compound confusion.
Yak Near the Sacred Yundrok Yumtso Lake, Tibet
Photo credit: Dennis Jarvis
Yakity Yak
Photo credit: Valerie Abbott
YAKU Words with Great Internal Rhymes …
Kanji with Both EKI and YAKU as On-Yomi …
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 6 Comments »
